We <3 Board Games: A review of Ad Astra by the We Heart Nerds Staff
Released in 2009 and designed by Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget Ad Astra is a vastly overlooked game which was honored as Lucca Games 2009 Best Boardgame award. This game combines the mechanics of action programming, hidden information, resource collection, trading, and variable phase order as players vie for supremacy in the galaxy. Designed for 3 to 5 players ages 12 and up with an average play time around one hour
Component Quality and Setup
Each player receives a hand of action cards with unique combinations of resources to gather and locations to visit. These cards are sturdy and have held up well over multiple plays without sleeving. The art on the card backs is compelling and beautiful and reminds players which action cards are theirs during the game.
The game is played without a static game board, instead players place large, double sided cardboard tokens representing stars splayed out around a central yellow dwarf star token representing the starting star system of the game. Each of these disparate stars is then surrounded by smaller; double sided cardboard tokens placed face down in various numbers representing planets yet to be discovered. There is also a cardboard scoring track with room for placing up to 15 action cards.
Each player also receives a set of four plastic starships, colonies, factories, and terraformers. This game also came with an extra piece of each type for each color, which we guess is in case you lose a piece. These pieces are well-sculpted and have held up well to multiple plays.
How it plays
Players select action cards from their hands and place them face-down in turn one at a time onto the numbered action card track on the scoring board. These actions allow you to build new ships / buildings, collect resources, trade resources, travel to star systems and most importantly score points! This is the most strategic part of the game as you are choosing all the actions you will take in this round. These cards are then revealed and resolved one at a time. All actions can be used by all players, but the player who placed the card decides how the card can be used. For example, if Doug played a card that allows him to collect either water or food and he chooses food, then all other players may collect any food they have a claim to. Players gain claims to resources by exploring stars and landing starships on planets, then building colonies, and later factories on these planets to produce resources when the linked action cards are revealed. This enables players to make impactful decisions on each card flip and means that no one is sitting idly by as they wait for their turn.
Scoring points is achieved by playing special scoring action cards. Each player has 3 of these and like many other action cards in this game each comes with a choice on what you and the other players will be able to score on as the card is revealed. For example if Brandon played the score on Terraformers or Systems action card, and he chose Terraformers, then all players with Terraformers on planets would immediately score and any one player who scored the most points on that action card would also get a +3 victory point bonus.
At the end of each round all non-scoring action cards are returned to the players. Scoring cards are held from one round to the next until all three of a player’s scoring cards have been played. This prevents players from scoring the same conditions back-to-back. Well, it makes it harder to do that at least.
Rounds of play continue like this until one player crosses the 50 point threshold signaling that the current round of the game is the last round. Then the player with the highest total score at the end is the winner barring any alien artifact trickery…I’m looking at you Omnibus Rebus Responsum.
How will it affect your game group?
If you have a group who feels that games like Settlers of Catan is too light, then Ad Astra will be a welcome addition. As with many games that allow players to make multiple choices in a round the game can suffer from Analysis Paralysis. This game requires a greater than normal attention to strategy and long term strategic thinking is a must here so if your group is more casual it may not be a great fit.
How will it affect your bank account?
Ad Astra is long out of print and finding one on eBay or BGG could set you back $50 - $100. The game has no expansions so once you buy it you are done, but unless you find a good deal / trade this game is not inexpensive. Because of the deep strategy you may have a more difficult time getting your money’s worth out of this game depending on your group.
How will it affect your collection?
Essentially this is a heavier, strictly European style resource collection game. As such it may replace games like Settlers of Catan in your group if you have the right mix.
Things We <3
Deep Strategy
Vast Replayability
Things We Don’t <3
May Be Too Strategic
Out of Print
We Heart Nerds Approved? Yes! 4 out of 4 Nerds approve this game.
